-5- 



spent by consumers for apples in 1940? Percentage figures for other products 

 quoted recently by V*". E. Piper are as follows: green beans 54/, cabbage 18/, 

 carrots 20/, lettuce 37/, onions 5l/, spinach 40/, canned peaches 11/, canned 

 corn 13/, white flour 40/, rice 29/, corn flakes 18/. 



Growi ng Small Fruits for Home Use 



Ever watch a portly lady hopefully check her v/eight on a restaurant 

 scales, and then order the usual calorie-laden meal? Not so with the modern 

 Miss. By shunning starchy foods, she saves her sylph-like silhouette. Here's 

 what's happened in the past 15 years. Per capita consumption of potatoes is 

 down 12^, and cereal products, 14°':, while vegetables are up 25^? and fruits, b%. 

 But that's not the whole story. Folks v.'ho grow their own vegetables and 

 small fruits enjoy not only the health giving qualities of these foods, but 

 the fun that comes from a productive tussle with Nature in the backyard. 

 Unless you've experienced the thrill of picking a quart of your ovm fresh 

 strawberries as the June sun peeks over the horizon, you still have something 

 to live for. If your slippers become soaked v.dth dev/, that's unimportant. 

 And the exercise, an unexpected dividend accompanying the harvest, will tend 

 to insure your slender form. 



Seriously, there's much to be said in favor of a planting of small 

 fruits on every farm. Strawberries, raspberries, and grapes require less 

 spraying than tree fruits. They bring quicker returns, and they occupy less 

 space. A succession of snail fruits makes a real contribution to a "live at 

 home" program. Apart from the money value of the fruit, there's a satisfac- 

 tion in having one's fill of berries in siommer, with a few extra quarts for 

 jam.. If you were to find a ^10 bill, you'd doubtless be happy. And yet an 

 area 20 x 20 feet is entirely capable of netting that tidy sum in terms of 

 luscious strawberries. "Better living from the land" becomes more than a 

 slogan if it finds expression in a vrell-pla.nned garden of small fruits and 

 vegetables. 



Subsoil Imp ortant in Raspberry Plantation 



A recent raspberry study in Nevj Jersey is suminarized in State Horti- 

 cultural Society News as follows, "It is very clear that soils underlaid by 

 heaver material, which is of great importance in providing a moisture reservoir, 

 are best adapted to the growth of Lathain raspberries. Before setting out new 

 fields growers should examine the subsoil and avoid setting raspberries in 

 soils too light to maintain a sufficient moisture supply throughout the grow- 

 ing season." The num.ber of strong canes in portions of the field underlaid 

 by loamy sand, sand, or gravelly sand, v.^as much less than where underlaid by 

 a subsoil containing some clay. The use of a salt hay mulch with a generous 

 application of fertilizer and lime helped to overcome the handicap of a porous 

 subsoil. Massachusetts raspberry grov-rers may v.'ell consider mulching, parti- 

 cularly where raspberries are being grovm on a relatively light soil. 



Nevj- Fruit Laws in the Northwest 



Quoting from a recent issue of Better Fruit, "By the time this issue 

 reaches you there will be two new lav,-s in the State of V.'ashington, both of 

 vital interest to fruit growers. One is an orchard sanitation law, designed 

 to speed up removal or destruction of pest infested orchards on properties 

 which are a nuisance to adjacent farms. Second is a law designed to control 

 pear psylla, newest Northv.'est orchard pest which specializes on pear trees." 



